Hendry point to the decline of a Japanese credit rating agency as
evidence that everyone is ignoring an unprecedented debt burden
(via
market folly):

Last December saw the closure of Japan's only truly independent
and rational (at least to me) credit rating agency [Mikuni]… The
closure of course coincided with Japan's first ISDA recognized
credit default event, the restructuring of the consumer finance
company Aiful, and preceded by a mere month the bankruptcy of
JAL. It is as though the truth is so unpalatable that investors
would rather not hear it, certainly not pay Mikuni $5,000 per
quarter to confirm the near certainty that they own over-valued
corporate credits. A country with a debt burden that is
unprecedented in the modern age and whose companies typically pay
less than 2% per annum for ten year money has decided that it has
no need for tales of possible woe. To quote Hillary Clinton,
it's, "Unf***ingbelievable!"

A Japanese deflationary event means a "sudden and dramatic
appreciation in the yen that would bankrupt its domestic export
base."